I've never seen an all-creature swarm army on the forum, which I found dissatisfying. I decided to make one!

Since MOCPages has had some outages lately, here's a picture from BrickFair (not as much detail, but everyone's in it):

First encountered on Dungus b II, the Dungan Swarm is not intelligent in the same sense as the other star nations; instead, it is driven by a single-minded impulse to reproduce, with a high mutation rate to drive adaptation -- the ultimate invasive species. An individual Dungan is not much of a threat, but when one appears, countless more are sure to follow.

No central Dungan intelligence has been discovered. Instead, it seems that Dungan creatures act as nodes in a network, and that this network becomes smarter the more nodes are present. While larger creatures do seem to be more effective at participating in the network, they are not necessary.

This leaves us with the unpleasant conclusion that the Swarm has no single points of failure to destroy; instead, it will have to be exterminated creature by creature.

Core Units:

Dunglet

The Dungan Swarm's general-purpose warrior organism, with no more intellect than a drive to kill anything not part of the Swarm.

Ripper

Somewhat more advanced than Dunglets, Rippers are deployed to reinforce flanks and stiffen formations which would otherwise be vulnerable to heavy firepower.

Spitters are an alternate adaptation of the Ripper body, instead equipped with a pair of venom-spitting glands to provide ranged support.

Assault Units:

Sky-Ripper

Sky-Rippers have a knack for appearing at the worst possible time for beleaguered defenders. They swoop from the sky in great packs, ready to tear into unsuspecting prey below.

Sky-Spitter

The Sky-Spitter rains venom from above.

Support Units:

Coming Soon: Guardian, Birthing Mound

Blaster

Blasters are bloated and humorously clumsy on their spindly legs, but their bulging sacs hold several ferociously reactive fluids that will explode at the slightest provocation.

If I were to make a movie about the Dungans, these guys would be the comic relief, stumbling around until they fell over and -- oops! Kaboom!

Warrior

When smaller Dungan organisms aren't enough to crack a target, the Swarm steps up production of the larger organisms. The Warrior is a tough organism, with more speed and weapons than its size would suggest.

In addition to its large claws, a Warrior may have a tail with one of several natural weapons.

The Zapper is the most common of these, with a massive electric organ.

Blasters are fast enough to make an encroaching minefield, but little else. The Lobber's spring-loaded muscle is used to propel them to their destination a little more rapidly.

The Sprayer wields a chemical spray with a caustic cocktail of highly oxidizing agents, stored in separate, highly armored sacs, and sprayed in such a way that the streams do not meet until they are outside the Sprayer. The resultant mixture is toxic and burns on contact with water, silicon sand, most atmospheres, and Solar Federation Space Marines.

Hauler

Massive creatures whose primary purpose is to carry biomass back to the Birthing Mounds, and then carry the resulting new Dungans to the front. They also mount heavy weapons in their tails; this one has a Zapper.

Sky-Hauler

When faced with obstacles which cannot be walked over or flattened, the Dungan Swarm makes use of Sky-Haulers to connect supply lines. They are also used as heavy bombers (carrying Blasters faster than they can normally walk). This Sky-Hauler is equipped with the Sprayer tail-gun.

Specialist Units:

Infiltrator

Infiltrators are essentially walking masses of stem cells, capable of re-shaping themselves to any form. With enough time, they can even learn how to duplicate and replace or control people.

Fleebnork

Once thought to be merely a nuisance of space, genetic analysis has made it clear that certain varieties of Fleebnorks have been adopted by the Dungan Swarm, to act as a sort of “advance guard” to soften up enemy fortifications and forces while a Dungan force is on its way.

Jaw-Jaw

These beings were also thought to be an independent nuisance, and certain strains have also been revealed to be Dungan creatures; however, the Swarm's behavior towards these miserable creatures has been dismissive at best and hostile at worst, and Birthing Mounds have never been observed creating more. It seems that even swarms of all-consuming creatures from beyond known space have some taste.

Coming Soon: Birthing Mound

Fleet Units:

Coming Soon: Star-Ripper, Star-Spitter, Star-Hauler, Star-Hive

Some final notes:

These guys are made based on (mostly) Battle Droid parts -- torsos, arms, vehicle bits, etc.

I tried to keep a common motif of brownish colors, a single eye, and six (or so) appendages (at least, among the larger creatures).

I'm not entirely satisfied with the Hauler; I guess the Swarm has some trial-and-error yet to be done.

I've got several hundred points of these (limited by my lack of Battle Droid bodies and Insectoid wings). Enough for a good-sized skirmish, at least.

I'm not sure how I feel about relegating the Jaw-Jaws to second-fiddle status, but these are some awesome units. We've been lacking a good hive-mind army of bio-constructs for a while and this one fits the bill perfectly.

razgriz 25th inf. wrote:im getting a slight feeling that some of this was inspired from dead space 2......?

The Zerg Swarm is a race of fictional parasitic insectoids and the overriding antagonists of the StarCraft series. Operating as a hive mind, the Zerg strive for genetic perfection by assimilating "worthy" races into their own, creating numerous different strains of Zerg. Unlike the Protoss and the Terrans, the Zerg do not use technology; Instead, they assimilate other species' traits by directed mutation in order to match such technology. As with the other two primary races, the Zerg are the subject of a full campaign in each of the series' real-time strategy video games. Zerg units are designed to be cheap and fast to produce, encouraging players to overwhelm their opponents with sheer numbers. Since the release of StarCraft the Zerg have become a video gaming icon, described by PC Gamer UK as "the best race in strategy history". The term "zerging" has entered video gaming jargon to describe using many low-cost and weak units to rush and overwhelm an enemy.

IVhorseman wrote:I'm the Several Hundred Dollar Man!

Rayhawk wrote:"Give him the stick DON'T GIVE HIM THE STICK" was a major part of Knights Kingdom development.

I have the most experience with the WH40k fluff, but ultimately, all "bug war" sci-fi can trace its roots back to Mr. Heinlein.

I'm glad you all enjoy the Dungans. Believe me, I'd build more if I had the parts to do it.

I included Fleebnorks and Jaw-Jaws in the army because (1) the "revealed to be part of a bigger threat" trope is part and parcel of the whole "utterly alien threat from beyond known space" deal (see: Genestealers), (2) they don't get enough attention (especially seeing as Fleebnorks have a stat card already), and (3) I thought the name "Dungan" was too cool to go to waste on a minifigure based on Jar Jar Binks. Honestly, if it bothers you that much, I could just say that certain strains of Fleebnorks and/or Jaw-Jaws have been "adopted" by the Swarm.

Though in stat terms, Jaw-Jaws aren't that useless -- I'm considering some kind of "fratricide" test that other Dungans will have to pass to not attack them (automatically passed if there's a Coordinator or enemies nearby), but otherwise, they are capable of using tools, a feat only shared by the more-expensive Infiltrator.